Link epi3294.mp3

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Introductory Comments:

Hello my friends and welcome to episode 3-294 of the RunRunLive 3.0 Podcast. We’re here today to continue our convivial conversations around the efficacy and transformational power of endurance sports. Welcome. This is Chris, your transient poet laureate here to drop some smahts on yah about training and work and life in general.

I got some great feedback from my 5 core listeners from last week’s show with the essays on work and the dark place. Obviously I was in the throes of a hard week when I scribbled those missives. It pleases me mightily that they helped you or resonated somehow harmoniously within the universe.

I’m on a plane across the country as I speak to you and I was trying to figure out what I could eat here that wouldn’t blow up my training diet. Delta has something called “All Natural Cran-Blueberry Crunch” – so I got a bag of that. I read the nutritional information and it says 172 calories per serving – that’s not too bad. Servings per container 5! Damn! That’s 860 calories !

I know in the past I have happily eaten a whole bag of these. I guess it’s not a bad choice if you could just make it into 5 snacks. 110 of those 172 calories are from the fat in the nuts. Which proves that you shouldn’t read the labels because it will only make you unhappy.

I’m seeing some life in my training. I barely survived that last dark week I was in when we last talked. But I hung in there and it’s starting to suck a little less and my confidence is building. I’m going to talk about that process in Section Two with “The Big Bounce”.

In Section One I’m going to give you my take on the classic self help advice of affirmations. And in today’s featured interview I have a great chat with Jaquie Millet who started running later in life – a couple years ago actually – and just won her age group at Comrades. She is a super nice person and give some great insight into what’s possible.

We have to thank Alex, the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Residential Life in the UK Division of the RunRunLive Corporate Enterprises for chatting her up at Boston and making the introduction.

As I was getting into the dark place in my training a couple weeks ago, I really had to narrow my focus and remove the variables. I took my long step up run onto the treadmill to avoid the heat and the hills. I took my tough long interval workout down to the track so I could measure the effort without variability. This really helped me get my head wrapped around these hard workouts. Control the variability so I could focus on the form, the effort and the pace.

I’ve also started getting serious about my weight. Traditionally, historically, as I get into these hard weeks of the training cycle my weight adjusts down naturally to race weight. I Figure it’s ok to go into the first couple build cycles a little chunky because it’s like weight training for the strength building phase.

This cycle it wasn’t working. I got through my first hard cycle and didn’t lose a gram. This is a problem because due to the injuries and the time off and the beer I’ve managed to grow the bottom line up to around 196+ pounds. This is way too heavy to be doing speed work. This is beyond heavy and squarely in ‘Jiggly’ territory.

I don’t stand a chance of running my goal pace if I’m over 185 and I’m only 6-7 weeks out from my goal race – corrective action was required.

I connected with Rachel, one of my PRSFit teammates who does nutritional counseling. I asked her to look at my diet and help me, not just slim down, but optimize my nutrition for training. Obviously if what I’ve been doing isn’t working it’s time for a bit of intervention.

I started logging all my food in MyFitnessPal again – (and if you care I have no problem friending you and giving you access to my log) She looked at it for the week and said “You eat really clean”. Of course she wasn’t looking at the previous weeks where I had Chinese food, Mexican Food and an entire pizza as my meal plan 3 days in a row and a 12 pack of wonderfully full-bodied craft ales with potato chips and cheese on top!

When we get a few weeks into it I’ll write it up for you. The biggest challenge she has given me is when she said, “Do you really drink 6-8 cups of coffee a day?” That’s like when you spouse says “Are you really going to put that there?” Sell your coffee futures – Mad Dog is cutting back.

After a week of clean eating I’m down under 187 pounds and training feels so much easier. If I can keep up this focused nutrition for the next 5-6 weeks I’ll walk into the target race lean and mean. No Jiggles. Like Maverick said, “I feel the need for speed.”

I’ve got heavy travel over the next few weeks so we’ll see if I can stay away from the 1,000 calorie snack bags and keep it focused while rolling out of bed at the crack of dawn to push that rock up the hill. At least an eagle isn’t eating my liver while I sleep.

(Come on, I know you folks are all well read and will get my obtuse Greek mythology references.)

When life gives you lemons…give ‘em back and get some limes, limes are better and they cure scurvy.

On with the Show.

…

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Section two:

Outro:

Cheers,

https://www.facebook.com/groups/46620307582/ or just search FaceBook for “RunRunLive”.

Outro Bumper

Alrighty then, pump those brakes and let’s move it to the exit of Episode 3-294.

To summarize, everything is going pretty well. I’m busy as heck, especially when you throw in travel and two-hour workouts! There is much more I want to do. I have to work on my ability to not do some things so I can wrestle more of the ideas in my head into existence.

One of the key things about this training cycle is my ankle pain, Achilles pain and general achiness is getting much better. It’s probably the less inflammatory diet combined with a lot of self massage early in the training cycle. Isn’t it nice to talk when things are going well?

I’ll tell you a couple stories since we last talked.

First are my track stories. I do my track work down at the local middle school. They recently re-finished the track and it’s beautiful. I’ve been training on this track for 18 years and I see many of the same people down there who walk in the early evenings.

I suppose I might be a bit of a strange presence when I’m down there running 1600’s at tempo pace. I know I probably look like I’m giving birth to a cow as I’m trying to hang on and relax into the effort. I’m a runner. I’m at the running track and I’m running. I think that’s as close to the intended purpose of the track as you can get – but I still have, not issues, per se, but situations.

I’ve told you before about how the soccer Moms used to yell at me for trying to run in lane 1 while they were setting up their lawn chairs to watch practice. “Why can’t you run in the other lanes?”

I guess I could run in the other lanes but then my 1600’s are no longer 1600’s. they are 1650’s or some other mathematical construct that I’m unable and unwilling to fathom as I’m dipping deep into the dark place. I have enough trouble holding it together to get my butt around the oval without having to swerve around people and do simple geometry.

Last week I was doing a set of 400’s at faster than 5K pace, so pushing it fairly hard. Some folks came out to walk. This one guy insisted on walking in the middle of lane 1. Why? I don’t even need all of lane 1. Just give me 12 inches to squeeze by on the inside when you hear me coming, because believe me, you’re going to hear me coming.

But, no, Mr. Fitness walker-guy would give an inch. I had to step off the track into the grass to pass him. I’m thinking to myself, “Great, all this work and I’m going to roll an ankle trying to get around this dude”.

After a few 400’s in the set I was doing I changed direction to keep my leg muscles balanced in the work. Now I’m running straight at this guy in lane 1. I had one of those ‘aha’ moments and just aimed straight for his chest. It woke him up to see my 190+ pounds of sweaty meat baring down on him and he did flinch and give way a bit, but he never moved over.

Then one night I was down there and I guy comes in while I’m doing my workout. He’s got one leg and he’s on crutches. Guess where he insists on crutching around the track? Yup, Lane 1. Just inserts himself into my workout and crutches away, glaring at me every time a pass. I mean, the guys got one leg so I guess he gets the right of way but what is it about me that pisses these people off?

I’m going to choose to celebrate the fact that I’m down their doing the work, but these are the kind of things that are going through my head as I struggle through the dark place.

On the lighter side, during one of my 1:30 step-up runs that I chose to do on the treadmill at the gym a lady with a nice bum got on the elliptical machine directly in front of me. She could have gotten on any of those machines and I’d just like to publicly thank her for choosing the one in front of me.

Frankly that should be a service that the club offers – and I’m sure the women would it too – attractive athlete inspiration and incentive program – unfortunately I have nothing to trade with in this regard.

Ce’st la vie,

As we get closer to episode 300 I’m looking for guest blog posts to read and I’m also going to experiment with other voices doing interviews. So if you’d like to conduct some interviews either with some of my guests or people you know and you think will be educational and inspirational – let me know – we’ll set it up.

Have a great week,

I’ll see you out there.

…

Thanks for listening folks I appreciate your support. RunRunLive is a free service for you because I like writing and telling stories.

I also love to meet folks so feel free to reach out to me at Gmail or any of the other social networking sites. I’m CYKTRussell. And as you know that’s Chris-Yellow-King-Tom-Russell with two Esses and two Ell’s.

My Website is http://www.runrunlive.com and most if not all of this content is posted out there. If you want the show notes to magically show up in your inbox when I publish a show in a beautiful HTML wrapper you can subscribe to the mailing list at my site. It’s a useful thing if you are moved by something I say and would like to see if what I wrote is the same thing! It also has all the links to everything and everyone I talk to and about.

Other than that, thank you for your attention, do epic stuff and let me know if I can help.

Ciao

Happy Song – Super Hero - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Superhero

Other products from Chris Russell you may be interested in

The Mid-Packer’s Lament

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Bio

Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad.

Introductory Comments:

Hello my friends. We find ourselves once more together to share an episode, episode 3-293 of the RunRunLive Podcast.

It’s been busy few weeks training-wise since we last talked. I made the mistake of telling my coach that I wanted to qualify and was willing to do the work. He reciprocated by hammering me with hard, long workouts that have kicked my running life out of balance in a good way.

I’m still only running 4 times a week but last week that included an 8 mile tempo run, a 10 mile tempo run and a 20 mile long run. This week is more of the same. I’m hanging on by my fingernails but it’s all good. It’s a great way to narrow your focus.

I was down the Cape over the 4th of July holiday. Nothing really eventful but it’s a different climate down there. Very hot and humid. I think it is somehow closer to the sun. It’s all well and good when you’re snoozing on a beach towel but not so much when you’re trying to hammer out a run.

Today we are going to chat with a local marathoner and running friend of mine Jill Maguire Trotter. I was interested in getting her take on running because she’s one of those people who manages to live her life, train and compete at a high level.

In section one I’m going to share an essay I wrote about work. And in Section two I’m going to get you fired up to face the daemons of discomfort. I didn’t travel this week so I got some good Miracle Morning time to cogitate on these themes.

That first week of getting back into the hard work of training was discouraging. I’m heavy and my legs are slow. But I know that I can do it. I believe that all I have to do is battle with the effort and keep bringing my best work and have patience. I believe it will turn around and the fitness will come and the training effect will kick in.

I’m beginning to see signs of life. I’m completing these workouts successfully and it’s encouraging. It’s tempting to declare victory and just walk away from the hard training at my age and ability level. I’m never going to be more than average no matter how hard I train. I’ve got nothing to prove. But it just feels worthy to be training to exhaustion. It feels right.

My garden is coming in nicely. I’m eating cucumbers and chard and kale. The hops are budding up. The berries are ripening and soon I’ll be sharing fresh tomatoes with the squirrels.

Buddy doesn’t like the squirrels. He doesn’t like the rabbits either. For some reason we have a proliferation of rabbits this year. And they are a brazen lot. They sit in the yard and mock the dog, smugly devouring my parsley. I wonder where all the local hawks and eagles and coyotes got off to?

We are through the nice part of summer up here in New England. Now we are into the hot and humid, turn on the AC time of year. The dog hates it. I can’t take him running. He’s exhausted by going to a walk. The mosquitoes and deer flies are out in full force. It’s a quiet and languid season. The dog days.

Toss your fresh salads and let’s Get On with the Show!

…

You should really sign on to my email list. Rather than basking in safe obscurity you can declare your allegiance to RunRunLive and get my drivel directly in your inbox. I mean, really, you’ve made it to 289 episodes and sucked the vital life force out of my narrative for 5+ years you should subscribe or at least join the RunRunLive Facebook group.

Section one:

Featured Interview:

Jill Maguire Trotter

Jill Maguire Trotter has hopped for east coast to west and back east again, getting a little bit faster with each successive leap. Growing up in the Worcester suburb of Millbury, MA, Trotter played youth soccer, softball, and most notably field hockey. She intended to play the latter sport in college (Babson) just like she did in high school (Notre Dame Academy), but those plans never came to fruition. After a brief stint as a sedentary person, Trotter became antsy and joined not the field hockey team but the cross country one. Although she “lacked the mental toughness” (her words) to be competitive, she stuck with it up to and through graduation.

After moving to San Francisco in 1995, she joined the Leukemia Society’s Team in Training and starting ramping up for her first marathon on the trails of Mt. Tam. In June of 1996, she ran 3:33 at the Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska and qualified for Boston. Of course, this led to a return trip to the east coast in both ‘97 and ‘98 where she ran 3:33 and 3:30, respectively.

Finally, in 1998, after all those trips from the City by the Bay to the City of the Beans, she settled for good (so far, at least) in the Merrimack Valley. She married, started a family, and took a break from marathons but not running.

She gave birth to her first son in 2001, then a daughter in 2003. Having missed the 26.2 distance, she started up again and ran a 3:22 at the 2005 Boston Marathon while unknowingly pregnant with her 3rd child, and a mere 9 months after giving birth to #3, she won the 2006 Baystate Marathon in 3:11. Three children under the age of 5 led to the purchase of a treadmill, and like many a dedicated runner/parent she snuck in her runs while the kids napped.

In 2007, with her children almost out of diapers, Trotter got serious. Encouraged by her Baystate performance, she joined the Greater Lowell Road Runners and recruited Nate Jenkinsfor coaching duties. Her goal: run sub 3:00. About enlisting Jenkins as coach Trotter says, “I credit Nate for teaching me how to train for the marathon; he instilled in me that it is about hard work and I should have confidence in my marathon goal times since they are based on results that I’ve achieved during workouts.” Her hard work paid off. Trotter ran 3:00 at the Vermont City Marathon in 2008 and then 2:58 at Cal International later that year. In addition to Jenkins, she credits Jim Rhoadeswith a valuable assist as they did most of her long runs together.

Trotter turned 40 in 2012 and has been one of the best master runners in the region. She considers her best event the marathon, and her competition would likely agree as she placed 1st in the masters division at the USATF-NE GPS Manchester City Marathon. Her time: 3:09. She is inspired by Kara Haas, Trish Bourne, Liane Pancoast, Nancy Corsaro, Cathy Pearce,and Barbara McManusand credits them for contributing to her success. She says, “I find that while I like to be competitive with women from other clubs, I also want them to succeed in their own goals; the New England running community is amazingly supportive.” Beyond running, Trotter aspires to be a good influence on her 3 children. Above all, she wants to teach them that if they work hard they can achieve their goals. I’d say that’s on The Level.

Section two:

Outro:

That’s all we have for you today. Hope you’re all fired up to go throw yourself at some tempo workouts. But, seriously you draw your own line. Don’t base your self-image on what I say. If you have never done speed or tempo training then give yourself 3-4 weeks to ease into it with strength training. Make sure you’re form is right. Do your stretching and physical therapy before you hit it hard.

Any weak spot or chink in your armor will turn into a injury when you go to the dark place. Your ability to figure out what’s a real injury and what’s another bothersome niggle will be needed to stay with it. When I’m in the throws of one of these hard, big bounce cycles something always hurts.

There were a couple days last week where I had trouble sleeping due to the exhaustion of my leg muscles. Pain is a signal but it’s neither good nor bad and you have to be able to figure out what’s real and what’s not. There’s no black and white.

If you’re going to drop into crazy big workouts make sure you stretch and warm up well. Make sure you fuel well before and after. Make sure you stretch and massage and ice where necessary. Because all the fitness in the world can’t help you unless you make it to the starting line.

If you have the discipline to do not only the workouts but also the whole package of things you need to do to stay healthy then the dark place is the shortest path to your goals.

I successful moved the RunRunLive website over to a new hosting service. I’m still working out some bugs and I haven’t gotten a chance to back update the episodes and articles that fell into the gap. I’ll get to it over the next couple weeks. At some point I’ll revamp the whole site because it is getting a little long in the tooth.

For the next iteration of the show I’m collecting blog posts from others. I’m going to read them. So if you have a post you’d be willing to share with me just send it along. I’m also going to look for some guest interviewers to add some new voices in as well – if you’re interested in doing an interview for me let’s talk.

And I do have an email list that I shoot the shows out to. I’ve been writing some extra posts on my website RunRunLive and I may start recording them as a bonus for those of you who are paying attention!

Happy Mother’s Day people.

Be good to each other – party on.

Cheers,

Outro Bumper

Thanks for listening folks I appreciate your support. RunRunLive is a free service for you because I like writing and telling stories.

I also love to meet folks so feel free to reach out to me at Gmail or any of the other social networking sites. I’m CYKTRussell. And as you know that’s Chris-Yellow-King-Tom-Russell with two Esses and two Ell’s.

My Website is http://www.runrunlive.com and most if not all of this content is posted out there. If you want the show notes to magically show up in your inbox when I publish a show in a beautiful HTML wrapper you can subscribe to the mailing list at my site. It’s a useful thing if you are moved by something I say and would like to see if what I wrote is the same thing! It also has all the links to everything and everyone I talk to and about.

Other than that, thank you for your attention, do epic stuff and let me know if I can help.